Stop Sharia courts in mosques: CJ bench

Chennai: The Madras high court has directed the authorities to stop the functioning of illegal Sharia courts run by advocates and religious heads. These courts have been granting divorces to Muslims as well as dealing in property matters.

“We are unable to accept the submission of the counsel for the authorities that merely because these activities are going on inside a particular mosque, they are finding it difficult to stop such activities. If place of worship — whether it be temple, mosque or church — is used for purposes other than prayers and more specifically to create extra judicial forums, certainly the authorities are duty bound to take action against the same. Let the authorities take necessary action to stop these activities and file affidavit before the court within 4 weeks”, said a division bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice M.Sundar.

The bench gave the directive, while posting to January 19 further hearing of a PIL from Abdur Rahman, an NRI in England, which sought a direction to the authorities to ban functioning of illegal Sharias, run by advocates and religious heads.

“We are not satisfied with the affidavit filed by the authorities, more specifically paragraph (10), which refers to the endeavour of the Makka Masjid Sharia Council (MMSC) as only conciliatory in nature. The MMSC has also chosen not to appear before this court despite notice”, the bench added.

The bench said a perusal of the documents shows that the proceedings were in the form of allegedly Shariat Decision given by the MMSC. It mentions the office bearers of the MMSC, including advocates. It refers to case numbers, file numbers, description of parties (which was as plaintiffs and defendants), and the date the decision was given. This was preceded by summons being issued allegedly regarding family disputes.

“We do find that a colour is sought to be given of a judicial forum to this endeavour, though they are outside the purview of the court jurisdiction”, the bench added.

Senior counsel A. Sirajudeen, appearing for the petitioner, alleged that there were hundreds of such courts functioning in the state, including one on Anna Salai. They granted divorce decrees whimsically and dealt with property disputes, too. Because of the illegal functioning of the Shariats, the family systems of a number of Muslims have collapsed and hundreds of spouses suffer the ignominy of separation because of their poverty.

By its name and by various publicity methods, the council has created an impression in the minds of local Muslims that it has been functioning in accordance with Sharia and all its orders and judgments were religiously binding upon them, Sirajudeen added.

Narrating his own experience Rahman, in his petition, submitted that though he too believed it was an authentic forum and approached it with a plea to reunite him with his wife, the council forced him to sign a letter stating that he was willing for Talaq and that Talaq was pronounced.